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New strain of Gold Finch discovered??
BettyFinchFan483 06/03 10:34am	Has anyone else heard about the possibility of a new sub-species of European Gold Finch discovered in the black forests of Germany? I recently heard something on the radio about a biology team that spent four weeks hiking through those forests, which are incidentally very remote and relatively uncharted. At any rate, one of the scientists was being interviewed, and discussed how they came across these bird nests that were nearly identical to those of a European Gold Finch, only there were two discrepancies. EGF’s are typically not found in that part of Germany, AND the spotting on the eggs were black as opposed to the traditional brown. Later on in their expedition, they spotted a European Gold Finch, or what they believed to be was an EGF with SILVER coloring in the neck area instead of gold. Could there be a European Silver Finch??? I’ve tried to find other articles online about this phenomenon, but haven’t had any luck –has any one else heard anything about this?
JumpingBean88 06/03 6:45am	Wow that sounds crazy. I’m not sure about that, though my Aunt always used to speak about coloring of birds changing in the colder climates, becoming different from when they are in the hotter ones. Could be very cold in the black forest.
BobCarduelisIntrigue 06/03 8:00pm	That’s fascinating Betty. I haven’t heard anything about that, but have to imagine it has to do with some sort of camouflaging element gained from the silver coloring rather than the gold, which serves to protect it from some of its predators out there. Wonder how they made it to that area of Germany though… I’ll definitely keep my ears and eyes open for further news stories that might cross my path about this matter.